1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to communications networks. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method, an apparatus, and network architecture for management of calls, particularly prepaid calls in a telecommunications intelligent network.
2. Background of Related Art
In recent years, the telecommunication industry has seen an explosive growth both in the number of the types of services offered and in the number of service providers. Among those numerous services now being offered, prepaid call service may be one of the fastest growing segments in the telecommunication industry today.
As the name implies, a prepaid call service allows a customer of the service to pay in advance for the use of the provider's network resources in making a telephone call. The prepaid call service provides, among other things, an alternative option for a telephone user who might otherwise not be able to obtain the traditional postpaid telephone services because, e.g., of a bad credit rating, or of being in a geographical area where post paid service is unavailable.
The world-wide prepaid call services market is projected to grow tremendously in the next few years, fueling a frenzy among service suppliers to quickly add prepaid service to the list of services they already offer. Conventionally, however, the addition of a new service such as prepaid typically requires the addition of new network equipment geared to handle such new service.
For example, as shown FIG. 21, an originator 501 attempts to initiate a prepaid call to a destination 502. Such a prepaid call service typically requires a service platform 503 to “rate” the prepaid account of the originator 501 to determine whether the originator 501 has a sufficient balance to place the call. If sufficient balance is available, the prepaid service platform 503 connects (or bridges) the call between the originator 501 and the destination 502 via the public switch telephone network (PSTN) 504. The prepaid service platform 503 may also provide additional information to the originator 501, such as account balance information and/or options for replenishment of the same.
Unfortunately, the addition of new hardware components to an existing network to add a prepaid service, e.g., the addition of the prepaid service platform 503 shown in FIG. 21, requires not only the immediate expense of new equipment, but also the time and effort in modifying other components in the network to accommodate the incorporation of (and communicate with) the new equipment. These costs and/or time requirements may prohibit or delay some service providers from quickly entering the growing prepaid service market.
Moreover, even if a service provider is willing to invest the necessary time, money, and effort, the components necessary to implement the services may not be widely available. For instance, industry wide standards may not yet exist in pertinent areas to allow the wide spread development of necessary equipment by network infrastructure suppliers. Rather than waiting for the development of a standardized industry wide approach in implementing the new services, if quick deployment of the desired service is necessary, each service provider must resort to independent development of various add-on equipment to their existing networks. These sporadic patchwork solutions by individual service providers are typically not cost-effective because the cost of development of such a service is duplicated by each service provider. This separate development deters some providers away from deploying the new service until it is already widely available. This is especially true for relatively recently introduced concepts such as telecommunication services implemented intelligent networks (IN), and more particularly wireless intelligent networks.
There is a need for an architecture and method to allow a cost-effective implementation of new services using existing triggers, network elements, and messaging protocols in a telecommunications network while at the same time maintaining industry wide uniformity among providers of the services and while maximizing the utilization of an existing network, all without the need to wait for future developments of new standards or equipments.